A series of tasks designed to provide converging evidence for specific processing deficits as a function of group etiology, neuroanatomical dysfunction or behavioral correlates are proposed. It is expected that these tests can be used to differentiate performance between groups of memory disordered patients by assessing the locus of their information processing disorder. Tasks are designed to investigate attentional capacities, automatic processing, analytic skills, cognitive manipulation and retrieval as well as aspects of retrograde memory, executive monitoring and personality factors. It is anticipated that subgroups of amnesics will perform differently on these processing tests even though their ultimate ability to retrieve the information is equally impaired. In order to provide a framework for these processing tasks, they are presented here in a logical sequence from those tasks performed automatically through those that demand conscious attention and ultimately to those that represent executive functions. Tests will include: Dichotic digit detection, Attention span, Encoding by category, Encoding spatial and contextual cues, Rate of forgetting, Perceptual Priming, Word completion, Fame Judgment, semantic retrieval, Remote retrieval, Metamemory and Level of Insight. Although these tasks have been chosen to represent points on a continuum, that lineage is not fixed; thus, this research might not only provide tests of differentiation, but a greater understanding of levels of processing as well. Eventually, these results might produce a test of discriminative ability, but this will await validation of each individual task as a test of differentiation between subgroups.